Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Ability to use and access a machine
to perform supposedly complex/menial physical and mental tasks could be termed
as development in popular parlance. Going by that definition, if we could
access a calculator/ computer to perform a multiplication or addition or if we
have access to a car/ scooter to reach the neighbourhood grocery shop could qualify
as development. Can we really call it a development?

I used to marvel at my dad who
used to recount stories of his daily walk of 6 to 8 kms coupled with swimming as a
routine activity. Don’t think he is a superman to be able to do such complex
activities. Such exploits are par for the course for the kids of that age.
Guess our kids would similarly be in awe when we tell them that we use to walk
to get groceries and milk from our neighbourhood as they might be using machines
even to get to the next room in your house.

Kids of today scurry for their
calculator even to multiply 17 with 9 or to compute three fourths of 8. Come to
think of it, I was just an above average kid in my school days but we never
resorted to using calculator to perform such arithmetics. It would be blasphemous to use calculator as it would render you a moron in the eyes of your friends.. Now we pride ourselves on our ability to access technology for even seemingly mundane computations..

Haven’t we as a race lost a bit
of our physical and mental faculties? Can it legitimately be called development
or progress? As the saying goes, too much of anything is good for nothing. Have
we reached that stage with respect to technology??

When you are able to use
something to your advantage, you can call yourself a master of that something..
But when we use technology too much, are we masters or slaves?

Too many questions and not enough implementable solutions in sight!!!!!!!!

The solution stares you right in the face.. But do we have the will to implement it??? Have we come too far down the bridge to really go back??